# Can they make a good Heinlein Movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602 "2005-07-15T02:07:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/61 "2005-07-16T02:07:09Z")
[blast from the past] I remember when they where talking of making _Stranger in a Strange Land_ in the 70s, the talk was always of casting David Bowie as Valentin Michael Smith. I think a similar looking actor might be the ideal choice[/bftp] ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/62 "2005-07-16T02:10:07Z")
Ooh! I just re-read TMIAHM, and I spent the whole damn adapting it into a movie in my head. To me, the perfect Manny would be Benjamin Bratt. He’s a bit older than the book Manny, but I don’t see that as much of a problem. He’s the right racial type. He’s thin and lithe. And I just like him. Wyoh spent most of the book (IIRC) made up as an “Afro.” So, cast a black woman. She can easily be made "white’ for the beginning part. I like Stacey Dash for the role. She’s not tall, but no matter. She, like Wyoh, is kind of ageless. You can’t tell how old she is by her looks. I love the idea of Alec Baldwin as Adam Selene. I’d rather leave Mike as just a voice, but if it seemed necessary to give him a face…Jake Gyllenhall. He’s boyish enough to play the “childish” Mike, but will also be believable as the strategically savvy Mike. Professor De La Paz–Linda Hunt. Is there any reason the Prof can’t be a woman? (Maybe there is–I don’t remember.) I think she’d be perfect. She positively crackles with a sharp intelligence. As you can see, my cast consists of not-unknown, but not exactly household name actors. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/63 "2005-07-16T02:44:58Z")
> [@detop](#): > > I remember when they where talking of making _Stranger in a Strange Land_ in the 70s, the talk was always of casting David Bowie as Valentin Michael Smith. I remember hearing that Nicholas Roeg started out with the intent to make _Stranger in a Strange Land_ with David Bowie, but couldn’t secure the rights, so he went with Walter Tevis instead and made _The Man Who Fell To Earth_, which has some similar themes. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/64 "2005-07-16T02:56:02Z")
A couple of suggestions for Manny out of left field: John C. Reilly, and Will Ferrel. Tom Hanks actually owned the rights to _Stranger in a Strange Land_ for quite a while, and was trying to get it made. A younger Tom Hanks could have been a pretty good V.M. Smith. But he’s too old now, and I’m pretty sure the property is now in someone else’s control. Another movie that would make a great Pixar animation would be “Have Space Suit - Will Travel”. I’d love to see a good Pixar ‘mother thing’ and a Wormface. And you could really get across the wonder of a kid from a small town travelling across the galaxy. It’s even got a plucky child in it for the kids. It’d be a great family movie. Another one would be “Starman Jones”. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/65 "2005-07-16T03:17:56Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > Another one would be “Starman Jones”. It’s not bad if you blow off one premise: the main character was a math wiz and became an astrogator because starships were piloted by people doing integral calculus in their heads because _computers were too slow to do the math_. OTOH, the book is a nice Hero’s Journey: the kid starts out as a bumpkin, ends up as a ship’s Captain through luck (good & bad) and talent. I think you’re right about _Have Spacesuit_, it could be a pretty good rendered/3d creation for kids/family. Actually, thinking about the Trial at the end makes me picture a Jimmy Neutron-type show. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/66 "2005-07-16T03:27:00Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > Tom Hanks actually owned the rights to _Stranger in a Strange Land_ for quite a while, and was trying to get it made. A younger Tom Hanks could have been a pretty good V.M. Smith. But he’s too old now, and I’m pretty sure the property is now in someone else’s control. He is too old for V.M. Smith, but he would make one hell of a Ben Caxton ! ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/67 "2005-07-16T03:30:09Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > Will Ferrel. Put the crack pipe down, **Sam**. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/68 "2005-07-16T03:37:14Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Back in the barrel until they recognize his genius. _stands by with cork_ > > _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ could work! I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “cold war,” though. It was still on when I read it and I got more of an American independence thing out of it. > > Anyway, if it does work, I guess we can count on _The Cat Who Walks Through Walls_, too, if the studios are brave enough to go with the non-ending. Yeah, I won’t hold my breath, but it would be cool. Hmmm. the mindset of people raised in the 50/60/70s and the people raised in the 80/90 are entirely different when it comes down to it. How many people remember seeing that ‘countdown clock’ in school that somehow changed to reflect how close we were to an actual shooting war? It came from some scientific magazine from what I can really remember. I was raised not just with school prayer, but the pledge of allegiance said every day. We had civil defense alarm practice, just like fire alarm practice. No matter what the SovBloc did, we had to outdo them, or stay ahead of them - be it biology, space, medicine, sports, military size… and there was damned little keeping them from ‘pressing the button’ to launch 1000 ICBMs with nuclear bombs other than _Our Might_ We barely acknowledged communist countries had an individual society, they were always portrayed as the Red Menace, large blocks of soldiers and weapons on May Day parade, or the Yellow Menace - hordes of little mao-book carrying drones with weapons or the 3d world menace - various identical lazy hispanics that would sell their country off to the highest bidder [us or USSR]. To be blunt about it, I have no idea if [frex] Till Lindemann, singer for Rammstein and more or less comtemporary to myself who was raised in East Germany even had a TV and saturday morning cartoons in say 1970 [i am pretty sure I was watching Scooby-doo in 1970=)] or his family went to church on sunday and had brunch with pancakes and eggs and bacon afterwards… Later in the 80s we more or less started seeing them as individuals, not a faceless mass. We started actively trading with them, and ended up with the dissolution of the USSR as _I_ grew up with it. If you read Heinlein, many of his stories are vehemently _american_ [as many of them were published in Boy’s Life and similar magazines for the american market.] It isnt that frex Moon is pro american, per se…but it is overwhelmingly patriotic. A small group of people holding out against a fairly communistic earth…a cautionary tale of what might be if the world became so unified and stringent. Face it, the moon was being used as a Botany Bay - a large prison system that was milked for money and resources. If you stop and think about how we percieved soviet era sattelite countries like Latvia or Poland, the USSR was essentially using the products of the more industrial countries to support the agricultural areas, and the ag products got taken and shipped to the urban areas, and everybody had quotas to meet. Just like in Moon. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/69 "2005-07-16T03:41:10Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > 🙂 I think they’d have to make it interstellar, or else the jungles on Venus would be an unfortunate anachronism. But, yes, a reasonably faithful version would be nice. > ] see, that would be screwing with the book…so what if we know now there are no swamps on venus? it is in the blasted book that there are swamps on venus. make the movie follow the damned boko or you might as well let verhoeven have at it as well. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/70 "2005-07-16T03:51:54Z")
**aruvqan** , I’m followin you on some of this, but it really hasn’t been that long for some of the things you’re discussing. > [@aruvqan](#): > > How many people remember seeing that ‘countdown clock’ in school that somehow changed to reflect how close we were to an actual shooting war? It came from some scientific magazine from what I can really remember. I’d guess quite a few. You’re referring to [the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’](http://www.thebulletin.org/index.htm) [Doomsday Clock](http://www.thebulletin.org/doomsday_clock/). It’s still around, and was set to seven minutes to midnight [as recently as 2002](http://www.thebulletin.org/doomsday_clock/current_time.htm). > [@](#): > > but the pledge of allegiance said every day. You do know that kids still recite the pledge…right? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/71 "2005-07-16T04:06:38Z")
> [@detop](#): > > He is too old for V.M. Smith, but he would make one hell of a Ben Caxton ! Strangely enough, that was exactly the thought I’d had when I read that. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/72 "2005-07-16T04:52:20Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Put the crack pipe down, **Sam**. At least I didn’t say Danny DeVito. ---
**Author:** ![Snag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Snag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snag)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/73 "2005-07-16T07:12:19Z")
> [@Tenar](#): > > When I was in college, I wrote a treatment and part of a script for “Time Enough for Love.” > > Just sayin’s all. That’s my favorite one by Heinlein. But whoa, there’s some stuff in that that would really freak out middle America. Nevertheless, I bet it would a lot of fun writing a screenplay for TEFL. It’s a story that would easily allow liberties to be taken. Although taking out most of the freaky parts would probably do more harm than good. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/74 "2005-07-16T23:17:45Z")
Looks like [Another Heinlein movie](http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-01/30/10.00.film) on the way: > [@](#): > > Oscar-nominated writer David Reynolds (Finding Nemo) has closed a deal to adapt Robert A. Heinlein’s SF classic Have Spacesuit, Will Travel for Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. David Heyman is producing the live-action film through his Heydey Productions company. > > Originally published in 1958, Spacesuit tells the story of Kip, a high school senior who wins a real spacesuit in a contest, playfully calls out on the radio and unexpectedly contacts a passing spaceship. The adventure that follows finds the very fate of Earth in his hands, the trade paper reported. Very cool. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/75 "2005-07-17T01:32:56Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > Looks like [Another Heinlein movie](http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-01/30/10.00.film) on the way: > > Very cool. Hopefully it goes into production soon and will be given a budget and a good cast. I’ll have to reread it soon. Good thing I’ve kept every Heinlein book. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/76 "2005-07-17T04:35:36Z")
> [@Snag](#): > > That’s my favorite one by Heinlein. But whoa, there’s some stuff in that that would really freak out middle America. Hell, a lot of that stuff freaked me out, as well. But taking it out would destroy the heart of the book, as the same stuff that freaks out the reader freaks out Lazarus, too – at first. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/77 "2005-07-17T08:06:14Z")
How about [Christopher Plummer](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001626/) as Professor De La Paz? Not quite the right ethnicity, but he could probably pull the role off in his sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/78 "2005-07-17T08:13:54Z")
The problem with Plummer seems to be that he’s always sleeping through his roles. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/79 "2005-07-17T15:44:40Z")
What is De La Paz’s ethnicity, anyway? I don’t remember. And I ain’t too proud to beg–did anybody have any thoughts on my casting choices upthread? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602/80 "2005-07-17T16:57:33Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > What is De La Paz’s ethnicity, anyway? I don’t remember. Unspecified South American. He mentions being in Lima when he was arrested, IIRC. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-they-make-a-good-heinlein-movie/312602.md?page=5)